![LALC Vice President of External Affairs Raeanne Li (11) explains the International Phonetic Alphabet to attendees. "We decided to have more fun topics this year instead of just talking about the same things every year so our older members can also [enjoy],” Raeanne said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_4627-1200x795.jpg)
![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Students vote on class council and honor council representatives for the next school year
Candidate for class of 2020 secretary Rachel Broweleit delivers her speech to her class members in the gym. Given the number of this year’s freshmen running for positions on their student council, freshmen candidacy speeches will be resuming on Friday.
April 14, 2017
Juniors, sophomores and freshmen voted for their class council and honor council representatives for the next school year today in the journalism room.
Candidates running for council positions delivered their speeches to members of their classes during class meetings held after fifth period on Wednesday.
“Particularly for the freshman class, it’s great to see such a high number of students running for office this year,” Upper School Dean of Students Kevin Williamson said. “It seems like students here, from what I’ve seen, tend to vote for the incumbents; on the other hand, it’s nice to get some new blood. Different people look at things differently.”
Juniors running for their class student council included Mona Lee, Amitej Mehta and Eleanor Xiao for president; Darren Gu and Shaya Zarkesh for vice president; Alex Wang and David Wen for secretary; Eric Jeong, Joanna Lin and Justin Xie for treasurer and Dolan Dworak for spirit coordinator.
“Dolan’s speech was really neat; he talked about how the class ‘got to elect him, but not really, like Cuba, because he’s the only one running.’ He made a lot of history references that were really good,” Divija Bhimaraju (11) said. “After listening to everyone’s speeches today, I’m currently pretty sure about the people I’m planning on voting for.”
This year’s sophomore candidates for class student council included Alycia Cary, Jason Huang, Richard Wang and Kelsey Wu for president; Meghna Phalke and Anjay Saklecha for vice president; Elizabeth Yang and Katherine Zhang for secretary; Shania Wang for treasurer and Claire Newman for spirit coordinator. Honor council candidates included Ayush Alag, Bobby Bloomquist, Nikhil Dharmaraj, Sukrit Ganesh, Taylor Lam, Rithvik Panchapakesan, Brian Park, Kelly Shen and Stephanie Xiao.
“I thought running for honor council this year would be an interesting opportunity for me because I feel like my values are very suited to honor council’s mission and goals, like upholding the values of respect and acceptance and integrity,” Ayush said. “There’s three spots and nine people and I’m not feeling too confident about my chances, but I’m hoping on a win.”
Freshmen candidates for their class student council included Avi Gulati, Vani Mohindra, Thomas Rainow and Bryan Wang for president; Lauren Beede, Emily Cheng, Reiya Das, David Feng, Jack Jia, Annie Ma and Jack Pearce for vice president; Jai Bahri, Rachel Broweleit, Chloe Chen, Alyssa Huang, Sachin Shah and Arun Sundaresan for secretary; Emiko Armstrong, Cynthia Chen, Mihir Dixit, Roma Gandhi, Vishnu Jaisim and Kashov Sharma for treasurer and Vance Hirota, Nathaniel Melisso and Sana Pandey for spirit coordinator.
Due to the number of candidates from the freshman class running for their class council, Friday’s scheduled school meetings were canceled to allow the freshman candidates to finish their speeches in a class meeting on Friday in the Nichols auditorium.
While the juniors, sophomores and freshmen were listening to candidacy speeches for class student and honor councils, the seniors convened in the Nichols auditorium to discuss their upcoming graduation ceremony and to receive their caps and gowns for the event.
